Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style

While in an airplane bathroom in 2010, photographer and mixed media artist Nina Katchadourian spontaneously slapped a toilet seat cover on her head and snapped a picture. Noticing that the resultant image evoked 15th-century Flemish portraiture, Katchadourian was inspired, and used her next 14-hour flight, from San Francisco to Auckland, to create a new photo series, Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style. The result is a hilarious and irreverent group of photos, a comment on the nature of portraiture and the connection between modern and Medieval visual cues, but also just pictures of a very serious Katchadourian with toilet paper on her head. Click through to see some of our favorite shots from the project, and then be sure to check out Katchadourian’s website for more of her work.